@hiretogs - The 1st Month In Review

It has been almost a month since I launched Hire Togs (@hiretogs), a Twitter page. The page now has more than 600 followers and is on over 70 lists!

The page is meant to be an easy way for a client to begin the process of hiring a photographer. Also, the page is another way for a photographer to gain exposure and get hired by a client for paid work. I have received a lot of positive feedback. To learn how to use Hire Togs, read the original blog post.

There have been a few challenges in this first month. Hopefully in time as the kinks are ironed out, these will subside:

1) Photographers' tweets are often too long to be retweeted (RT). Some are the full 140 characters. I want to be helpful to fellow photographers, but not at the expense of spending a countless amount of time editing tweets. Thus, tweets unable to be RT will not be.

2) Some photographers send DMs instead of tweets. Only real tweets sent to the @hiretogs page can be RT.

3) Some photographers have asked me to contact clients whose tweets have been RT. Potential gigs are saved in the Favorites on the page. (I will leave gigs in there for 2-3 weeks except for future dated gigs and weddings, since most others will have located a photographer by then). It is up to a photographer to tweet the client if they are interested in a potential hire. Photographers shouldn't be nervous but simply send a pleasant tweet letting the client know that they are interested in working with them.

4) The #hiretogs hashtag is being used incorrectly. Some photographers have added it while tweeting about their own daily activities. This isn't the intended purpose. It is so that other photographers and clients can easily find tweets in relation to this page.

5) A few photographers are upset that they haven't found a gig that works for them yet. The page is to help photographers possibly add a few more gigs to their calendar. It can't be the sole source of photography leads for a photographer. I RT potential gig tweets from people worldwide, so if we divide that by the number of photographers using Hire Togs, there is no way that every photographer would get a lead every single day.

6) Some clients are angered by the fact that this page is not for unpaid work. There are many sites and pages on Twitter that focus on unpaid work, Hire Togs just is not one of them. I encourage these clients to try Craigslist or some of the other Twitter pages that have tweets for unpaid work. Many photographers earn a living through paid work and this page focuses on that.

7) Also, the page is not for underpaid work. Peopled have sent DMs offering payments of $5 and $10 dollars for photography work. It's very disrespectful. Clients and photographers should always respect each other and share a mutual kindness. It is an honorable relationship, whether or not payment is involved. If payment is involved, as in hiring a professional photographer, hopefully clients are respectful enough to understand that 5-30 hours or more of work for most shoots isn't covered by $5 and $10 payments. Professional photography is not a right (for a consumer), it is art and a service. Rights are guaranteed under law (without charge), services are paid for.

I love that really great Twitter users are considering using the page when they need to hire a photographer, thanking me for the retweets and letting me know about their troubles as well. Some users mentioned that they dislike being asked "what's your budget" by photographers, and I recently wrote a blog post about that. Hopefully as the kinks are ironed out, this page will be a great way for photographers to add a few extra gigs to their calendar throughout the year. Overall, it has been a cool experience running this page for the last month.

Thank you for all of the support!

Links: follow @hiretogs on Twitter, follow @thetrudz (Tru Shots Photography) on Twitter

Related Blog Posts: Photographers Should Know Their Rates, 10 Easy Ways To Make A Photography Client Happy